A sporting chance: Women's college soccer stars find professional career is a tough goal

1:00 AM,
Jun. 16, 2013

Katy Frierson Freels, center, plays in a National Women's Soccer League match in May. While Olympic stars like Abby Wambach and Hope Solo enjoy fame and lucrative endorsement deals, other players struggle to find a professional league that can sustain itself and pay them well enough to fulfill their dreams of a sports career.

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For young women whose lives have been in limbo for the past year and a half, it is ironic to hear Katy Freels, Victoria Frederick, Julie King and Jillian Mastroianni describe themselves as lucky.

The last 18 months for the four former women's college soccer players from Auburn, Alabama and Boston College have been dictated largely by the actions of others and happenstance that created euphoria and celebration followed by heartbreak and despair, only to be followed again by jubilation.

They are tied by the common thread of a love for a game from their days of pee-wee soccer and moms offering ...